Favorite Figures in Art History

[EloiseGC]

Just to kill time, let's talk about some of our favorite eccentrics/assholes/geniuses from art history.

 

Now, I'm not necessarily talking about your favorite artist, because let's be honest: Gainsborough might have been an incredible painter, but he was probably a total snooze-fest at dinner parties. 

 

I'm rather fond of murderous Italians; Caravaggio and Bernini had some serious anger-control issues.

[Mississippi Snow]

I'd like to know more about the lives of artists who drew and wrote in the margins of medieval texts. Those cats sounded like pretty awesome ... cats. 

On the real, Monet was also a pretty big asshole to his family, as was George Ohr, the local, Mississippi eccentric potter/ceramicist. 

Raphael was supposed to be a ladies' man, though. 

[EloiseGC]

You could make an encyclopedia of artists who were assholes to their families- like Gauguin!

 

Isn't Gericault's death mask creepy? Beautiful, but, you know. Creepy. Not something you'd want to find staring back at you from your closet.

 

[EXAYBACHAY]

I'd like to know more about the lives of artists who drew and wrote in the margins of medieval texts. Those cats sounded like pretty awesome ... cats. 

On the real, Monet was also a pretty big asshole to his family, as was George Ohr, the local, Mississippi eccentric potter/ceramicist. 

Raphael was supposed to be a ladies' man, though. 

 

*Ladies' and men's man, though (maybe).

[Borden]

My favorite thing about Raphael is something one of my grad school professors used to say in the undergrad lectures, at which no one laughed but the grad students:

And then in 1520, Raphael died, and everyone was very sad *mimes melodramatic crying*...

 

Except Michelangelo.

[EloiseGC]

HA! Awesome. 

[dutchdtc]

And then in 1520, Raphael died, and everyone was very sad *mimes melodramatic crying*...

 

Except Michelangelo.

 

I remember my professor telling me almost the exact same thing. I also remember my professors telling me about the time when Michelangelo pissed off the Medici family so badly that they put a price on his head. He hid out for quite awhile in the basement of their own chapel and they never found him. Check out the room: